The new cultivar is the result of a commercial breeding programmed developed with the intent to create new Phormium varieties in interesting colors with more compact plant sizes. ‘Electric Black Light’ was discovered by the inventor, Mal Morgan, a citizen of Australia in October of 2004 at a commercial nursery in Australia. The new cultivar resulted from a crossing performed by the inventor in 2002.
The seed parent is an unpatented, unnamed, proprietary seedling of Phormium tenax. The pollen parent is also an unpatented, unnamed proprietary seedling of Phormium tenax. 
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘Electric Black Light’ was first performed in Macquarie Fields, Australia by micropropagation tissue culture in October of 2004. Subsequently, at least 7 generations of ‘Electric Black Light’ have been reproduced and have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.